'Marlboro Primary School' Cleverly Maximizes Available Space

Downtown urban centers around the world are becoming denser and denser as urban planners recognize the environmental impacts of sprawl, and Marlborough Primary School in London is an elegant example of how to address the issues that result from such densification. The school uses a tiered system to make efficient use of the relatively limited space available to it, providing a positive and joyful environment for students while also adhering to the demands of the surrounding community.

Dixon Jones, the architecture firm behind the project, had a difficult brief in designing the school. Not only was it required to build a large school with ample outdoor play areas, but it also had to find a way to include a new commercial building and a pedestrian walkway. The solution was a series of tiered outdoor levels that create more space horizontally and vertically.